Tag: Facebook

Putin’s bots and the First Amendment

| by delsandy | Sandy's Campaign Diary 2018 | No Comments

Litigate or legislate?

The General Assembly just passed a law requiring online platforms, such as Facebook, to keep records of who paid for political advertisements on their sites.

We acted in response to the ads bought by Russian agents, working at the behest of the Putin government, during the 2016 Presidential election.

Before I introduced my legislation, I sent the draft to the Attorney General’s Office, which advised me that it was constitutional.

Several of its provisions were amended onto the legislation that we passed, House Bill 981 and Senate Bill 875.

Late in the session, I attended a meeting with representatives of Facebook, newspapers, television, and radio.
Facebook said that this legislation could serve as a national model.

However, a newspaper representative asserted that the First Amendment prohibits the government from requiring the press to print anything, even a database of political advertisers on a newspaper’s online edition.

We decided not to revise the bill because an amendment would delay final action and possibly prevent the bill from passing.

Last week, Governor Hogan let this legislation become law without his signature.

He supported the intent of the bill, he wrote, but was concerned about the First Amendment issue.

The law could be challenged in court, stated Rebecca Snyder, executive director of the press association.

Whatever happens in court, we should also discuss whether the law could be amended to meet those First Amendment concerns next year in Annapolis.

Real Guns and Virtual Ads

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Two bills that I worked on were debated on the House floor today.

I was the lead sponsor of neither.

Under House Bill 819, an appeal of the State Police’s denial of a license to carry a hand gun would be heard by an administrative law judge, instead of political appointees of the Governor.

A gun safety lobbyist raised this idea with me last summer.

I told her that the lead sponsor of the bill should be someone on the Judiciary Committee.

Delegate Atterbeary was in the room when the vote was taken on whether to give the bill a favorable report and send it to the House floor.

My role: strategize on how to pass the bill, testify at the public hearing, and prepare to speak during the floor debate.

The bill passed with enough votes to overcome a veto, should Governor Hogan choose to do so.

– – –

Much of the Russian meddling in the 2016 election took place on Facebook and other online platforms.

Protecting and expanding our right to vote is one of my proudest and most important areas of accomplishment as a legislator.

My bill would compel buyers of online political ads to register with the State Board of Elections and file reports of their disbursements over a certain amount.

House Bill 768 would also direct online platforms to retain digital copies of online political ads, as well as contact information for the political committees or individuals who purchase such ads.

A bill addressing this problem was also introduced by Delegate Alonzo Washington, chair of the Election Law subcommittee in the ways and Means Committee.

It was his bill that was debated on the House floor today.

Several provisions of my bill were amended onto his.

Mission accomplished.

Posting and negotiating

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’m posting on Facebook.

And I’m negotiating with Facebook.

House Bill 768 would require online platforms to keep records of political advertisements.

Before a bill hearing, I often try to meet with the opponents of my legislation to see if we can reach a compromise.

In this instance, the more accurate term would be the business most directly affected by the bill.

I met with a Facebook executive and the company’s Annapolis lobbyists before the bill hearing.

This weekend, the company sent me its reactions to the conversations it had with me and another legislator, as well as its reactions to the hearings and SBE thoughts.

The discussions continue.

Contacting and Thanking Voters – On line and at their front door

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Russians bought at least one Facebook ad that targeted voters in Baltimore during last year’s Presidential election. The ad made reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, the Baltimore Sun reported yesterday.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-cnn-facebook-20170927-story.html

Under Maryland law, each campaign finance entity responsible for publishing or distributing campaign material through the Internet must keep a sample copy on an electronic medium that can be produced as a facsimile.

Is this ad covered by the existing law? Can we enforce this law against a foreign group? Can we regulate Facebook or does that authority belong to the federal government?

I’ve asked Attorney General Frosh for legal advice.

—-

Mailings, automatic phone calls, and personal contact have little effect on a voter’s decision in the general election.

That’s the conclusion of a study done by two political science professors that a good friend shared with me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/campaign-tactics-study_us_59ca64dce4b01cc57ff5a46c?ncid=APPLENEWS00001

Two days ago, I knocked on the door of an 89-year old man who lives next to the Forest Park Golf Course.

I introduced myself, and he responded, “I know who you are.”

I asked, “How do you know me?”

“I read the newspaper, and I get your newsletter every April.,” he said.

I doubt that my constituent has read the professors’ study.

It’s more likely that he knows what Tip O’Neill said.

“People like to be asked and people like to be thanked.”

My father said that as well.

 

 

 

Knowing my own name

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2013 Legislative Diary | No Comments

“I found my father on Facebook before Catholic Charities did.”

Thomas Diepenbrock decided at age 40 to try to find his birth parents.

He was testifying on House Bill 22, which, according to its supporters, would “expand the rights of adopted adults to know their original identities, as well as their medical and ancestral histories.”

He continued, “I desperately wanted to know what my birth name was on the original birth certificate.  I am legally barred from knowing my own name.

“It was shocking and revealing to learn that my children have ice blue eyes because my birth father does.

“I just wanted to know where I came from.”

I always try to have a witness who personalizes the issue my bill addresses.  You can’t do it  better than this one did.

In this instance, the technology outran the law, as Facebook rendered obsolete the statute, the product of a compromise in 1999.

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